by Author Music for Good

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Voltage Programme: Working with Volunteers at Elevated Risk

Youth Music’s Voltage programme aimed to recruit and engage young people from challenging circumstances in positive volunteering experiences.

This page is part of a resource collection for practical guidance around providing volunteering opportunities.

 

CHALLENGES OF WORKING WITH YOUNG VOLUNTEERS WITH ELEVATED RISK

The target groups for the Voltage programme were Looked After Children and those from BAME communities. It is a challenge to engage some young people with elevated risk as participants on projects, so engaging them in a practical volunteering experience where they are taking on a leadership role is even more challenging.

The challenges of working with young volunteers with elevated risk include:

How young people at elevated risk were recruited and supported to volunteer through the Voltage programme

Across the Voltage programme, many young people with a range of different backgrounds were engaged. The target groups were looked after children and those from BAME groups. Others included NEETS, young offenders or those at risk of offending.

All Voltage partners determined that some of the key principles for successful engagement are:

  • Provide personal support, in partnership with other agencies (e.g. young people’s youth workers, or referral agencies)
  • Provide opportunities which appeal to personal interest, including other projects within the organisation or elsewhere
  • Listen and respond to what young people want

SoundLINCS, the Voltage organisation in Lincolnshire, experienced challenges with working in partnership to reach and best support young people at elevated risk:

“At the outset of the first year of Voltage we entered into discussions with Catch 22 to offer Voltage volunteering places to 3 of their clients.  The aspiration was to ‘connect’ the 3 young people to the Rhythm of the Abbey project.  (Catch 22 is a supported housing project based in Abbey Ward).  There was definitely a synergy between soundLINCS, Voltage and Catch 22.  There was definitely an excitement and enthusiasm from Catch 22 who could appreciate the opportunities for their young people – and particularly the potential of enhancing their employability through a volunteering-based reference.  Sadly the discussions did not conclude successfully due to a funding crisis at Catch 22 which resulted in a complete cessation of new opportunities.  Our learning from this is:

  • To establish a viable timeframe around discussions with new partnering organisations that is determined through a risk assessment process
  • To conduct parallel discussions with another new partner(s) to minimise the risk of investing  time and resources with no result”

“At StreetVibes Youth (SVY), in London, our experience with socially-excluded and at-risk youth has proven that young people are likely to disengage when they feel that their needs are not supported or their voice isn’t being heard. To counter this, SVY incorporates one-to-one sessions and group discussions as a regular part of each session to ensure students can voice their opinion by a less formal method. The peer mentors attend weekly meetings with both the project manager and volunteers to analyse and address potential problems before they can impact on successful delivery. Methods to support young people included:

  • Weekly one to one ‘buddy’ sessions with peer mentors
  • Weekly group sessions
  • Linking volunteer opportunities to wider, more mainstream programmes has removed stigma and maintains engagement – Voltage is not seen as ‘just for bad kids or kids in care’.
  • Building relationships with parents, carers, keyworkers, youth workers and schools encouraged and supported young people-aided retention, as did explaining the benefits of volunteering to parents and carers.
  • Hosting a range of exciting and inspiring youth-led projects for volunteers to get involved with, from supporting music-making workshops to performing at large and small music showcase events.
  • Extending certain privileges to volunteers only, e.g. free studio time, free use of music equipment, lunch and travel expenses, a free SVY t-shirt, free access to SVY studios in Lewisham, Greenwich and Southwark etc.,, creates status amongst the volunteers and differentiates them from SVY users who do not volunteer."

Future Projects in Norwich also stress the importance of suitable personal support for volunteers. This type of support offers a framework for a personal mentoring relationship to develop where issues can be discussed and explored and options for referrals highlighted. Future Project's focus is about engaging young people who are mainly considered to be hard-to-reach due to behavioural and emotional difficulties, social exclusion and young offenders, to name a few. They fully understand the need to provide an environment that is considered safe with staff that are non-judgmental, to help that young person feel secure and confident to establish a base for them to begin to understand their potential and realise their own talent.

Example of a successful outcome for a participant at Future Projects

Derik, a volunteer from Norwich from the BAME community who had recently been released from prison and was still currently on tag volunteered in Future Project’s music studios working as a sound engineer. He has now progressed to become a music producer on Future Project’s Purcell project - an urban/classical collaboration, working with local MCs, the Britten Sinfonia, Norfolk Youth Orchestra, the hip hop Shakespeare Company and Kit Downes from the Kit Downes Trio to produce an original piece of music for live performance. Check out this report in the local press of the first full day of the Purcell project and Future Projects with a special mention of Derik.